When the National Endowment for the Arts was handing out federal arts grants last year, San Diego ranked at the bottom of the list among California cities, earning just two NEA grants (for a total of $75,000) compared with state leader San Francisco (which got 37 grants totaling $1.4 million) and No. 2 finisher L.A., with 15 grants totaling just over $1 million.
In a move that may (or may not) be related to criticism from local arts groups and agencies about the small number of local grants, new NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman will kick off his national "Art Works" tour in San Diego on Saturday with visits to Balboa Park, the NTC Promenade, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and La Jolla Playhouse, among other locations.
Last year, only the Old Globe and the tiny Aja Project (an inner-city photography program), received grants. Local arts leaders say they hope that Landesman's familiarization trip this weekend will spur a larger number of grants next year.
Landesman's schedule for Saturday has not been announced, but will be posted later this week at www.arts.gov. Part of the day program will include a public arts forum in the afternoon at La Jolla Playhouse.
Encinitas playwright Moira Keefe will bring her latest play home this weekend, with a free performance of "My Year of Living Anxiously" at the Encinitas Library's community room at 540 Cornish Drive. The performance at 7:30 p.m. will be followed by a public reception hosted by the play's producer, the Encinitas Theatre Consortium.
Keefe premiered the three-actor play in January at San Diego's Lyceum Theatre. She describes the confessional comedy as based on "being in the middle of hormonal teenagers and dying parents, and the dealing with my own depression and anxiety."
Keefe has written five plays about her life (including "Life Before The Crisis," "Life Before Sex" and "Staying Married").
She said she was inspired to write the new play after her father died three years ago, leaving a surprise cache of 63 years' worth of indexed diaries.
"I found a diary from 1975 when I'd graduated from high school, and he said I was a hellion," she said. "If I'd found them when I was younger, I might've been hurt, but I see it differently now. Men in those days didn't go to therapists. The diaries were his therapist."
The show incorporates her father's diaries, her mother's letters to her from over the years, her heartbreak at watching her parents' health decline, her experiences with her now-16-year-old daughter, and her experiences with psychiatrists and the drugs they prescribed.
The play kicks off the Encinitas Theatre Consortium's 2010 season. The nonprofit group was founded in 2009 by Judith Montague, an Encinitas playwright, actress and producer who's been involved in the local theater scene for more than 30 years. Her plays have been produced at the Fritz, Sixth@Penn, San Diego Rep and by Carlsbad Playreaders, as well as numerous theaters nationwide.
She said she started the consortium to expand the arts offerings at the city's many unused theatrical spaces. Last year, the group produced a Mary Pickford silent film festival. Coming up this year, the group plans a reading of Escondido playwright Joe Powers' "Taxi Dance," featuring the San Diego Black Ensemble (on May 14) and another silent film festival in mid-November.
Montague said she hopes this spring to establish a writer's forum to develop new plays by local authors ("we're looking for plays that have already been developed in readings and workshops, and we're looking for works that are contemporary but not too edgy") and after that, a reader's theater program.
Visit the Web site at www.etcinfo.net.
Tovah Feldshuh's one-woman play about Golda Meir, "Golda's Balcony," will replace "What You Will," Roger Rees' solo play about Shakespeare, this May in the Old Globe Theatre.
Rees is now co-starring with Ian McKellen in a London production of "Waiting for Godot" that's been such a success, it is likely to extend or tour, so Rees asked to be let out of his spring contract with the Globe.
Feldshuh earned a Tony nomination for her role in "Golda's Balcony," which is the longest-running one-woman show in Broadway history. The play traces Meir's life from Russian immigrant to American schoolteacher to Israel's fourth prime minister. Feldshuh will appear at the Globe through underwriting via the 2010 Shiley Artist-in-Residence program.
"Golda's Balcony" will run April 28-May 30.
Two of Broadway's best-reviewed plays of 2009, a New Orleans-style jazz musical and a drama by South African playwright Athol Fugard join the regional premiere of "Hairspray" in San Diego Repertory Theatre's just-announced 2010-2011 season. The six-play season kicks off July 17 and continues through April 2011. Show dates and an as-yet unnamed sixth production will be announced at a later date. Here's the lineup:
-- "Hairspray," July 17-Aug. 5. The Rep announced last month it will produce the Southern California regional theater premiere of the Tony-winning musical, based on John Waters' ebullient '60s-themed comedy about an overweight Baltimore teen who dreams of integrating a local TV dance party show. The show will be co-produced by the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts.
-- "Superior Donuts," September-October. From the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "August: Osage County," Tracy Letts' new comedy which had its Broadway premiere last fall is the story of an ex-hippie who takes a chance on a cocky young black dreamer who promises to turn his struggling Chicago doughnut shop into a hip urban coffeehouse.
-- "Storyville," Nov. 13-Dec. 12. Broadway veteran Ken Page ("Cats," "Ain't Misbehavin' ") directs Ed Bullins' lively jazz musical set during Mardi Gras in 1917 New Orleans. A cast of 21 singers, dancers and musicians will tell this story about a boxer and a singer in a bawdy, soon-to-close honky-tonk called Storyville.
-- "The Road To Mecca," January-March 2011. Rep associate artistic director Todd Salovey directs Fugard's drama about a reclusive widow and artist who faces losing her meticulously decorated home, as well as her freedom, when a well-meaning Afrikaner and a young teacher try to talk her into changing her circumstances.
-- "In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)," March 19-April 17, 2011. One of the best-reviewed plays of Broadway's 2009 season, this sex comedy by Sarah Ruhl ("The Clean House"), is the story of an aloof Victorian-era New York gynecologist who discovers how a vibrating electrical device may be the answer to the hysteria and depression that afflicts women and men of the era, including his curious and sexually frustrated wife.
Dasha Burns, a 17-year-old senior at La Costa Canyon High School, won first place in the English-Speaking Union's 25th annual San Diego Shakespeare Competition, held on Sunday at the Old Globe in Balboa Park. The second-place winner in Sunday's contest was Del Mar resident Erik Larson, 16, a junior at La Jolla Country Day School.
Each year, students compete at their individual high schools by reciting 20-line monologues from Shakespeare's plays, along with some of the Bard's sonnets. North County semifinalists included Carlsbad resident Melanie Keplanek from Cathedral Catholic High; Encinitas resident David Hines from Pacific Ridge High; and Vista residents Eleanor Rudolph (Carlsbad High) and Hannah Marker (Balboa City School).
At Sunday's contest, the high school semifinalists competed and were narrowed to five finalists, who had to do a 20-line cold reading from one of Shakespeare's plays. Burns was chosen as the winner, earning $300 in prize money and a trip to New York City where she'll compete at Lincoln Center with 55 other finalists from around the country April 24-27. The winner of the national contest will get a four-week trip to Oxford, England, to study classical acting.
Other San Diego County finalists were Satya Chavez, Zachary Bunshaft and Harold Wise. ESU San Diego chairwoman Rhoda Auer said that San Diego is known for producing a large number of national finalists, many of whom have placed second or third nationally. Her son won first place (and the trip to England) in 1999.
Welk Resorts Theatre in Escondido will hold a talent contest next week, and the grand prize is a role in its production of the musical "Footloose," which opens May 6 for an eight-week run.
A panel of professional and celebrity judges will oversee the contest, which will take place at 10 a.m. March 19 at the theater. Contestants must be 18 years old (on or before April 23) and non-Equity to participate. Auditioners should prepare a one-minute song sample and be prepared to sing to piano accompaniment. Ten finalists will be selected and asked to sing again and show their dance/movement abilities.
The top prize will be an unspecified role in "Footloose." Other prizes include a dinner for two at the resort's restaurant, an audition coaching session with the "Footloose" director and a vocal technique session with the theater's artistic director Joshua Carr. For more details, visit www.welktheatresandiego.com.
A broken water main last week damaged the "sprung wood" dance floor and flooded offices of Eveoke Dance Theatre in San Diego's North Park. Although the dance company's studio is closed for repairs, its annual free day of dance classes will go on as planned March 20. The afternoon program of free workshops (from 2-3:30 p.m.) and $5 performances (4-5:30 p.m.) will now take place at Hoover High School, 4474 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego. The company is seeking donations to tide it over until the city reimburses the company for the damage. Visit eveoke.org.
Oceanside-based actor/storyteller James Nelson-Lucas will head up an evening of Irish storytelling from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Saturday at First Lutheran Church, 1410 Foothill Drive in Vista.
Storytellers from all over Southern California will gather for the St. Patrick's Day-themed program. The program will be presented in two parts. The first half of the program will be designed for children, with stories for all ages. At intermission, the children will be invited to leave the auditorium to take part in arts and crafts. Then the second half of the program will feature stories for grown-ups.
Nelson-Lucas heads up James Story Magic, a company that presents storytelling, school performances, workshops and motivational speaking.
World-renowned mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade will perform at San Diego's Mainly Mozart Festival in June as the only local stop on her just-launched farewell tour.
Von Stade's concert on June 18 will be the highlight of this year's festival, which runs June 8-19 at the Balboa Theatre in San Diego.
Violinist Sarah Chang will also be featured in a solo program on June 11. All the other concerts will feature David Atherton conducting the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra with guest artists, including pianist John Lill (June 8), flutist Timothy Day (June 10), clarinetist Anthony McGill (June 12), pianist Adam Neiman (June 15), glass armonica artist Dennis James (June 17) and violinist James Ehnes (June 19).
For tickets, visit mainlymozart.org.
Pam Kragen is the entertainment editor of the North County Times.
